First posted 09/04/07
With the release of the CIA’s “family jewels”, we form a better picture of how it’s role is important today, even to a country ten thousand miles away. I could have easily begun this piece with ‘Turkish democratic government thwarted by the CIA”, but it might be harder to find someplace where the icy tentacles of intelligence have yet to corrupt. Following up from my last post.. It seems that the New Turkish government has the blessings of the current US administration. While there have been Turkish military takeovers of governments every 10 years, could it be possible that this will be the uprising that is suppressed by the US GOV and the CIA?
Update – Right on schedule a new coup was attempted in 2008
The investigation “Ergenekon”, the constitutional amendment freeing headscarf in universities, the closure case against the ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party, the ground operation of Turkish Armed Forces into north of Iraq, and President Abdullah Gul’s visit to Armenia were the highlights of the year 2008 in Turkey.
It could be possible as we enter in to a new Cold War that the Western world is trying to secure and shore up its (supposed) boarders against a soon to be evacuated and hostile Middle East, and a Quickly re-nationalizing Soviet Union. Today Turkey still maintains a military force in the internationally unrecognized northern 1/3 of Cyprus
M.
HTTP://rawstory.com/news/2007/Intelligence_officers_confirm_Kissinger_role_in_0626.html
Here are some excerpts from the rawstory.com article.
“Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pushed for the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and allowed arms to be moved to Ankara for an attack on that island in reaction to a coup sponsored by the Greek junta”
“In all the world the things that hurt us the most are the CIA
business and Turkey aid,” Kissinger declares in one of those
documents, a White House memorandum of a conversation from Feb. 20, 1975.”
Kissinger had abetted illegal financial aid and arms support to Turkey for its 1974 Cyprus invasion.
In July and August of 1974, Turkey staged a military invasion of the island nation of Cyprus, taking over nearly a third of the island and creating a divide between the south and north. Most historians consider that Kissinger – then Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Gerald Ford – not only knew about the planned attack on Cyprus, but encouraged it.
Some Greek Cypriots believed then, and still believe, that the
invasion was a deliberate plot on the part of Britain and the US to
maintain their influence on the island, which was particularly
important as a listening post in the Eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the October 1973 War between Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Several intelligence sources, who wished to remain anonymous to maintain the security of their identity, confirmed to RAW STORY that Kissinger both pushed for the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and allowed
arms to be moved to Ankara.
However, a former CIA officer who was working in Turkey at the time, suggests that Kissinger’s statement in the memorandum about Turkish aid likely means the Ford administration, following Kissinger’s advice, conducted business under the table with right-wing ultra-nationalist General Kenan Evren, who later dissolved Parliament and became the dictator of Turkey in a 1980 coup.
“The implication is that the US government was dealing directly with General Evren and circumventing the [democratically elected] Turkish government,”
According to the former CIA officer, Turkey’s democratically elected President Ecevit had good relations with the Johnson administration, but the Nixon administration, where Kissinger served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, had issues with Ecevit.
“I don’t remember now what all the issues were,” the source said. “But I remember that the White House did not like Ecevit.”
Cheney, along with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, first came to prominence during the administration of President Ford. Rumsfeld had served in various posts under Nixon before being sent to Europe as the US ambassador to NATO in 1973, a period that included the Cyprus coup. When Ford became president on August 9, 1974, immediately preceding the second wave of the Turkish invasion of
Cyprus, Rumsfeld returned to Washington to serve as his chief of
staff, while Cheney became deputy assistant to the president.
Rumsfeld and Cheney gained increasing influence under Ford, reaching their apex of power in November 1975 with a shakeup that saw Rumsfeld installed as Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney as White House chief of staff, and George H.W. Bush replacing William Colby as CIA director.
The aid to Turkey referenced in Kissinger’s cryptic remark was
precisely the subject of Congressional oversight on the Executive
Branch in 1974-75. In a foreshadowing of how Iran Contra would play out a decade later, the White House violated both US and international law in providing arms and financing to the Turks for the Cyprus invasion.
The CIA, through various spokespeople, would not comment on how much additional information with regard to Kissinger, the attack on Cyprus, and the events leading up to the 1980 coup in Turkey with US support would be part of the declassified documents to come out this week.
European Commission sources assure that Brzezinski remains an extremely influential figure. The Bilderberg discussion on the control of Eurasia still refers to The Grand Chessboard. Washington is such an avid cheerleader of Turkey’s accession to the EU because this means increased American influence near the Caspian and over the eastern Mediterranean. And it also works towards the containment of Iran, Russia and China – which, according to Brzezinski, may not be allowed to emerge as rival powers to the US in Eurasia.
This is from a forum post, later to be a lost blog post. Future updates on the situation with Turkey and Greece will be posted later.
